The Church was keenly opposed to such fatalism. On April 22nd, 1604, the Inquisition formulated its charge against Galileo Galilei, lecturer in mathematics, whereby he was accused of ‘haver ragionato che le stelle, i pianeti at gl’influssi celesti necessitino [10] - he had reasoned that the stars, planets and celestial influences were able to determine the course of events. It also accused him of ‘living as a heretic’. These were “charges of the utmost gravity”. Although Galileo was interrogated at Padua as a heretic over this, the charge was not pursued, and never passed into the hands of the Holy Office in Rome: he was evidently protected by his holding the chair of mathematics at Padua. The Church did not wish for trouble with the university.

To sum up: Galileo was a very popular and prominent Astrologer, as was typical for natural philosophers up until the 17th century.  Much of the corroborating evidence was only found recently. In addition to botching the Galileo story (Galileo was condemned for a far different reason than most people think),  it turns out that the Church backed off from what was a legitimate prosecution of heresy for — wait for it — political reasons.

As we’ve come to expect, the true story is much more intriguing than the urban mythology would have us believe. Critics of pseudo-science note well.